ah ha moment

Sometimes I need to see things side by side to understand how they are the same and different a real ah ha moment for me.  These are all decrease stitches with yarn overs.  Starting at the lower right and working up. Knit 2 together (k2tog) with the yarn over on the right.  Not a good look.  I did the yarn over on the left on the next 4 rows. Nice even row slanting to the right.  The knit 2 through back loop (k2tbl) does not make for a nice slanting line but it is quick for turning the heel of a sock.  Slip slip knit (ssk) Is the smoothest left slanting decrease, both stitches are slipped knit wise then knit together. The last is slipping a stitch purl wise then knitting and passing the slipped stitch over (psso)  not as nice a line of stitches.  In the top rows I stacked my decreases with a yarn over then with knit front and back (kfb) just to see how they stacked up.  Not  much difference in appearance. Ah ha and now I know.  --Ann--

Socks are finished with the slip slip knit and knit 2 together.  It makes a lacy cable looking pattern.   My cheat sheet because I would knit these between other things and I forget so quickly which row I was knitting.  Maybe now after doing the swatches I can remember the stitches and the symbols, the left slant slip 1 then slip the 2nd stitch and knit.  The right slant stick the needle into the 2nd stitch, the far side of the chart.  The next pattern I knit might use different symbols.  Always check the chart!!   --Ann--

k2 tbl vs ssk

 Knit 2 through the back loop or slip slip knit for decreasing which looks better?
When I am knitting the heel of a sock I knit 2 through the back loop.  The sock is not for 4-H, no one is ever going to look at it that close, if the decrease line is a little wonky that's okay.  And its faster.

But for a stitch pattern on the leg of a sock or a sweater the slip slip knit really does look better.  A nice straight line that slants to the left.

Sometimes a good visual aid is better than relying on my memory.

Practical application slip slip knit leaning to the left and knit 2 together leaning right.  --Ann--

knit swatches

A few weeks ago I was trying to remember how to do a double decrease stitch,  I didn't have access to my knitting books but I could look back at my blog which helped but not enough because the stitch was on a sock in progress on size 0 needles, very small.  I'm a visual thinker so I need pictures, big illustrations and when I'm not getting it and someone says "do I need to draw you a picture?" I'm like "yeah it really would help." If someone is talking numbers to me I need to visualize the number with the commas otherwise thou, grand, k, exactly how many are we talking about??!!?
So I get out the size 9 needles and worsted weight yarn and knit a swatch.  Now I get it and have a swatch stitched to an index card in my swatch box which also has swatches from sweaters that have been washed and blocked with accurate notes just in case I use that particular yarn again or forget how I should wash it.  warm water? cold water? hand wash?  Just trying to make my life easier.   --Ann--

Slipping the 2 stitches knit wise then knitting and passing the 2 slipped stitches over looks so much nicer.  By the time I knit this stitch pattern again I will have forgotten how it should be done so I have a reference in my box of swatches.

Tick Tock the clock is back

Tick tock the clock is home again.  The house has been so quiet without the tick tock of the clock, it’s like the heartbeat of the house is beating again.  The tick tock seems to say take your time or just relax but then when it chimes on the hour its in a rush hurry, hurry, hurry, you’re late, hurry.  This clock has been in the family for generations, it goes to the youngest Douglas male in each generation. So hubby got it from his uncle who got it from his father.  It will go to our youngest son.
My grandparents had a mantle clock that always said hurry up with the tick tock  and sometimes when I  would listen to it when I was little it would say tock tick, tock tick them almost like a blink of the eye it would be tick tock again.
Comfort sounds --Ann--

reading list # 3 2018

1. The Garment Maker’s Daughter by Hillary Adrienne Stern about immigrants, garment manufacturing, labor unions and loves lost and found.  
2. 1968 by Mark Kurlansky events happening in1968 and what lead up to them and how they changed the world, youth, civil rights, women’s rights, revolution, demonstrations etc.  I was 12 in 1968 so was just a little oblivious to what was happening.
3. A Book to Die For by Richard Houston murder mystery 
4. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce again for book club I like it more and more  
5. Marriage of Inconvenience by Debbie Macomber 
6. A Thousand White Women by Jim Fergus a work of fiction in the form of journals based on some historical events.    
7. Winterkill by CJ Box more adventures in Wyoming 
8. Trophy Hunt by CJ Box only 4 characters with green eyes but only one mentioned
9. The Orphan’s Tale by Pam Jenoff WW II and the circus. 
10. Dull Knife short story by CJ Box 4 
11. Delicious by Ruth Reichl fiction about a food magazine and a stash of letters from the 1940’s. 
12. The Lilac Girls by  Martha Hall Kelly very tough to read WW II women’s concentration camp for book club
13. The Angry Tide by Winston Graham mor about Ross Poldark sigh
14. The Radium Girls by Kate Moore another tough book about the girls who painted  the illuminated dials of clocks and aviation dials between 1910 and 1935.
15. Out of Range by CJ Box more murder and mayhem in the Wyoming wilderness 
16. Hanna's Daughters by Marianne Fredriksson life and attitudes of three generations of women in Sweden

Enjoying time on the deck mostly in the shade with a tall glass of ice water.  --Ann--

deja vu all over again

Its like deja vu all over again, to quote the late Yogi Berra I even had to google Yogi Berra quotes to find the spelling of deja vu.  Nothing I was trying was being recognized by spell check thats a bad speller but it is a foreign word.  Same pattern, same arrangement, same fabrics, same quilting design.

 A different fabric on the back with the same Alexander Henry Dick and Jane winter print.  I like that fabric so much I had to share it on 2 quilts.  and now I have had more time to think about how to quilt the pink and black quilt  --Ann--

deja vu

I was planning to machine quilt a pink and black and white quilt but all my bobbins were full of red thread so to the next Christmas quilt its deja vu.  Or maybe emptying a couple bobbins was like finishing dinner before I could eat the ice cream.  Same pattern, same arrangement, same fabrics, same quilting.  --Ann--

another ta tea da done

 I finished another Christmas quilt.  There has been a day or two of perfect summer days when the temps are not too high and the humidity is low and the wind is just a breeze to keep the bugs away, then there are the rest of the days; hot, humid and windy or no wind at all but not quite missing a snowy day in December.  More machine quilting to do in the coolness of my sewing room.  --Ann--

more machine quilting

Its been a busy week and a half...........family reunion the last weekend of June with 50 in attendance. Since it was on the farm where I grew up I made arrangements for all the food.  Then the cousins from Ireland stayed with us a couple days I would have loved for them to stay longer but the green green hills of Ireland were calling them back.  With all the rain we have had it is almost as green as Ireland here.  We had a wonderful time. Lunch and an afternoon with a girlfriend from out of town.  A couple days to rejuvenate I was like a cat stretched out in a chair on the deck reading, in the sun for a little while then in the shade, then to catch up with the everyday stuff and now a couple hours in my sewing room.  --Ann--